I am happy today! My ex-colleagues at Engage AdManager have bought the company from Engage to re-form Accipiter – the company Engage acquired in 1998 (or thereabouts).

Engage has slowly been moving out of the online space. When I worked for them they owned a large number of online companies. The selling of AdManger to its management seems to leave them with no pure-play online offerings.

I just want to wish the new AdManager management all the luck in the world they are a fantastic group of people and if you’re in the market for an online advertising solution, you’ll find best of breed at www.accipiter.com.

They are a fantastic group of people and if you’re in the market for an online advertising solution, you’ll find best of breed at www.accipiter.com.

• Accipiter Solutions Acquires Engage’s Online Advertising Division
• Engage Continues Ad Disengagement
• Engage Sells Online Ad Business

On this day…

2005: Regent Street Lights 2005
2004: Great London Food Market Revisited
2003: Heavenly?
2003: Do I Hear Fi?
2003: Another Month Another Man
2003: Bring A Smile

So DoubleClick are going to be more open about cookies and all that they are tracking. According to DoubleClick’s press release:

DoubleClick is to be commended for its cooperation in setting an industry standard for promoting consumer privacy in the data collection and tracking taking place across networked websites,” said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

[release]

The issue of cookies – especially in relation to online advertising – is something that seems to get some people all worried that they are being spied on (like those big satellites can’t see what you’re doing anyway). It seems in the US, people go to court over them. Given that I’ve been working in the online advertising business for nearly seven years (has there been an online ad business that long?), I think I am supposed to have an opinion on this hot potato. Except, I don’t think I do (at least as long as we can use cookies, I don’t have an opinion, which I guess means I do have an opinion). Cookies are not evil, and as companies like DoubleClick must have millions of cookies in their databases, I am sure my online activity is not of sufficient interest for anybody to try to find out where I have been. Most people are pretty good and don’t store personally identifiable information and, even if they do, I could just wipe my cookie files and start again and stop being tracked. So, all I really want to say is there is nothing wrong with cookies. Cookies are useful. People who hold data on me should abide by the Data Protection Act, which seems sufficient for every other piece of information that is being held about me, so why is everybody so worked up about these little bits of data? Agghh!!

<This unstructured, meaningless rant is now over>

On this day…

2006: Formula One Calendar 2007 For Outlook Import

Still, publishers need to make responsible decisions about what kind of ad content they will accept. They need to scrutinize both the product being advertised and the ad vehicle being used to promote it. Users will rebel at a certain point — and an ad like this perfectly illustrates the point when you’ll hear from more than just the “noisy few”; you’ll hear from the “loud masses.”

Eric Picard

Looking at yesterday’s Way Back Machine link again, [yesterday’s link] I am struck by the lack (almost, anyway) of commercial messages on the Yahoo! Page from 1996. Obviously, any sensible person realises that, in the end, all this great web content has to be paid for somehow. I am more than happy that the company I work for manages to pay my salary on a monthly basis. Still, can’t help wondering if it’s all gone mad now: Is Our Industry a Modern-Day Sodom and Gomorrah?

On this day…

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